Moving during a pandemic

TL;DR it's not recommended

Sometime last year (2019) my wife and I began seriously discussing moving to be closer to her parents. Later that summer we went out to visit and look around at where we'd like to settle in the area close to them and happened upon a new neighborhood being built. We hadn't thought about buying new, in fact we were actually musing about buying a property with a little land (my wife has a couple of horses and we thought having them with us might be good). So, with no real intentions of actually buying we thought, just for shits and giggles, we'd take a look at the models. Why not?

By the time we had done the walk throughs and talked to the agent a bit and got some literature, I realized we could totally buy one of the new houses. And the builder's schedule fit perfectly for our timeframe. Pure synchronicity. So we decided to go for it.

We got papers signed and earnest money sent to secure our lot. The plan was for the house to be completed in late March of the following year (2020), with a closing date in the first week of April. A perfect time frame for our plans.

Sometime in November 2019 a couple of things happened. The first was rumors of a new virus in China. The second was my wife getting injured at work and ending up on worker's comp with a blown knee, keeping her out of work for several months at best.

Fast forward to March of 2020. A global pandemic hits, and travel is limited. And we are coordinating a move of approximately 1000 miles. To say this move was stressful would be absolutely appropriate. It sucked. Easily the hardest move I have ever done, if only because of the uncertainty of the logistics (Will the movers have to cancel at the last minute? Will the closing happen on time? Will there be problems with the wire transfers?).

In the end everything came together at the very last minute, despite car trouble along the way and having to manage all correspondence with just my phone.

We are now moved in and still unpacking. People are still supposed to be sheltering in place. People are still hoarding toilet paper (the dumbest thing in the world to hoard, but whatever).

While my wife is still recovering from her injury, the timing worked out well (she works as a flight attendant, one of the worst jobs to have when any illness is going around) as she was stuck at home while the virus spread. I can work 100% remote and had been since she was injured. We got lucky.

Working at home has always been something I liked, as the modern open office plan is a nightmare if you need to be able to concentrate without distractions. Never mind the fact that you can't have private conference calls, since there are no walls. It sucks. Working at home means I have the best office ever. So long as I have a decent internet connection.

I'm not even sure what the point of writing this was, other than to get it off my chest. It's been a stressful few months.